'No Extradition Treaty': Pakistan Reacts To India's Request On 26/11 Attack Mastermind Hafiz Saeed

Pakistan has confirmed that India has sought the extradition of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Pakistan has confirmed that India has sought the extradition of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

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Pakistan on Friday confirmed that India has sought the extradition of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, who is wanted by Indian probe agencies in several terror cases, as reported by news agency PTI. Saeed is also a UN-proscribed terrorist.

On Friday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated that the request for extraditing Pakistan-based Saeed, along with certain documents, was sent to Islamabad recently. “We have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents to the government of Pakistan,” Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi, as quoted by PTI.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan received a request from the Indian authorities seeking Saeed’s extradition in a “so-called money laundering case," as reported by Dawn.com. She further stated that “it is pertinent to note that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India.”

India does not have an extradition pact with Islamabad. However, people familiar with the matter said extradition is possible even in the absence of such a framework pact, PTI reported.

Saeed was arrested in July 2019 by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) after 23 FIRs were registered against him and his close associates. In April 2022, Saeed was awarded a combined sentence of 33 years imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court in two cases of terror financing.

Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that claimed 166 lives, including six Americans.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a political entity of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, has fielded candidates for each and every national and provincial assembly constituency across Pakistan for the upcoming general elections slated to be held on February 8, 2024, as reported by ANI.

Hafiz Saeed's son Talha Saeed is also going to contest the polls from National Assembly's constituency NA-127, Lahore, while PMML's central president Khalid Masood Sindhu is taking part from NA-130, against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo and former pm Nawaz Sharif.